City Hall,

P. O. Box 30075-00100,
Nairobi,
KENYA.

Telephone: 020 344194

Web: www.nairobi.go.ke

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

PUBLIC SERVICE MANAGEMENT
News release
For immediate release

November 27th, 2014

Nairobi City County issues statement regarding its policy direction on Solid Waste
Management in the City
November, 27th 2014- Today several groups purporting to be waste
collection and transportation firms congregated around Wetlands to protest
about the recently launched system of waste collection and transportation
that covers areas of Kilimani, Kileleshwa, Lavington and Kangemi, commonly
referred to as zone 7.
This protest is illegal and demonstrates how insincere our partners in solid
waste management in the City are. The waste management system of the
City for quite a long time now has been declining yet the generation is on
the rise. This is despite the fact that at the moment, there are another of
different actor categories in the collection and transportation space for
waste management. These actors include the Nairobi City County
Government, 47 registered private waste collection companies, 20
unregistered waste collection companies and civil society groups including
youth groups in the tune of 100 in number,
In 1998 with the assistance of the Japanese Government, a Solid Waste
Management Master Plan was formulated. This plan and still with the
Japanese Government assistance through JICA, was up dated in 2010. In
both instances, it came out clearly that waste collection and transportation

in Nairobi can sustainably be provided by the market by involving the private

sector and Community Based Organizations through a well-structured and
accountable way. This meant that Nairobi was to be divided into 9
operational zones where an individual firm/group or consortium of either
would be competitively procured and awarded a zone to operate under
Franchise arrangement. The franchise arrangement which ensures crosssubsidy for services especially for those whose capacity to pay is low would
make it possible for standard services that does not discriminate as opposed
to what is currently happening. This is in line with the current County
Governments aspiration of equitable provision of social services to all.
Of course the new system was to start with a pilot which is well chosen to
provide a good mix for cross-subsidization. The pilot that was launched by
H.E The Governor on 22nd November, 2014, will run for 3 years and the
franchisee was selected after due diligence regarding all the procurement
procedures had been undertaken. Furthermore, preparations for the takeoff
involved a series of consultations which started in 2013 with both the
residents of the area and the former private waste collection actors. Besides,
adverts calling for bids were publicly shared in the print media on 9th,
January, 2014.
Because this is the only way to change the system of waste collection and
transportation that has remained opaque and unaccountable for decades, it
is our plea that maximum cooperation and support be provided so that
lessons learned can inform the other zones lined up for franchising in the
coming years. You may have noticed that the franchisee has introduced
color cording bags to promote waste separation and has further branded the
container bags with its logo and other details. This is the only way to create
sustainable systems and accountability. It is insincere for residents of the
City to pay for waste collection services, yet such wastes ends up becoming a
nuisance to other people living in other parts of Nairobi.
Ladies and gentlemen, Nairobi generates about 2,240 tons of waste every
day. This waste is spread all over the City thus anybody willing to make a
contribution to good waste management system in the City can operate
anywhere but, in an orderly way controlled by the County Government.
Zone 7 only generates about 70 tons of waste and therefore there is still

over 2000 tons to scramble for. We therefore encourage other private waste
collection companies to start building the requisite capacity to enable them
compete for waste collection and transportation in other zones yet to be
advertised.

ENDS
For further information please contact:
Beryl A. Okundi, Director Public Communications, Nairobi City County;
Email: bokundi@nairobi.go.ke